BMW R100 Cafe Racer
Cafe Racers started right here in UK, in the Fifties, where hardship form II World War was slowly evading, Rock & Roll appeared and social values started to change.
Motorcycles were still common daily transport, even for families, with a side car outfit then later the Microcars. More young people started to have the means to afford personal transportation, being an older bike or a younger scooter or perhaps a very old Austin Seven, good thing Mots' hadn't come into force yet!
From this time, we started to see young bikers congregating together at greasy, lay-by Cafes that populated our roadsides and a movement was born, bikes and Rock & Roll!
But old bikes was often what theses chaps and ladettes could afford, with new bikes still mostly out of reach so, how do we get an old bike to go faster? Exactly, remove all that is unnecessary, begin with the fat pillion!
In those days, any vehicle that could do 100mph was extraordinary, remember, the Jaguar XK120 born in 1948 was so called because it could attain 120mph, making it the fastest production automobile in the world! Later in Jabekke, it managed well over 140mph with a blueprinted engine and some aerodynamic mods such as bubble canopy.
Vincent Black Shadow was then the fastest production bike, with potential for over 125 mph (200Km/h) and could do 0-60mph in less than 6.5 secs! But its price when new was proportionate with its qualities - high!
So, the real challenge for these lads was to get their home brewed bikes to over 100mph (160km/h) with some more or less successful home tuned engines, sometimes resulting in some spectacular blow-up doing the ton-up!
Some Cafes became notorious and quite famous in their own right, with Ace Cafe in North West London by the North Circular, revived few years ago by Mark Willsmore hands, the Busy Bee in Watford Junction sadly no longer with us but revived now through a club and Johnson’s Cafe on A20 in West Kingsdon, East London, not far from Brands Hatch, where the lads got sometimes over excited and did some road racing on A20 on the way to the races!
One of my favourite stories is the one about putting a coin on the Ace's Jukebox and go for an impromptu road race on North Circular on a pre-set route, normally to Hanger Lane Junction (about 1 mile and a bit away) before it became the Gyratory System uniting A40, A406 and A4005 and see who would get back before the song ended!
No mean feat as usually these rock n' roll songs played for less than 3 minutes!
Thanks to these places, we had the Rockers with their Cafe Racers and the Mods with their Italian suits and Lambrettas with about a zillion mirrors!
In history was recorded their famous seaside battles such as Brighton and Hastings, but in their own words, it was just the media making a fuss out of it!
Quadrophenia movie was shot in 1979 (with Sting no less) portraying these British youth sub-cultures. You will notice the ever-present Rockers black leather jackets, goggles and pudding helmets! Just like Ogri!
If you enjoy movies, don’t miss the experimental Tunnel of Love, with guest appearance with Eddie Kid, a truly great short movie. Last time I saw it for sale was at Ace’s.
In the old days, a common way to build a Cafe Racer was to use a Norton featherbed frame, discarded by Formula Junior builders such as Cooper, as Norton would not supply its Manx 500 engine by itself and shove a Triumph engine to it.
Triton was born and with it came alloy tanks, alloy mudguards, rear sets, clip ons, racy seats, all in attempt to emulate the era's racing bikes. Other configurations were attempted including, Tribsa, Norvin, Norbsa and all kinds of "Bitsas". Some builders got famous such as Dresda, Rickman, Metisse, Norvil, Dunstall, Rob North etc, with their tailored kits and accessories.
Remember, at this time there were not speed limits on Motorways, that came later, courtesy of some Ford chaps, Jack Sears and Peter Bolton testing a Daytona Cobra on the M1 at over 185mph and some journalist with nothing better to write about on the Sunday Times newspaper. After all the fuss, 70mph limit was imposed in Britain, by Barbara Castle, Minister of Transport, in 1967. The 70mph is still with us today.
Nevertheless, the Metropolitan police thought that a ton up on North Circular was a no-no, therefore they acquired a secret weapon, oh yes! A fleet of gleaming, very fast Daimler Darts, with special training given to police drivers at Hendon.
These cars were equipped with a 2.5l OHC, all alloy V8 with hemi heads, capable of 125 mph, developed by Edward Turner, yes the same from Triumph fame, responsible for the Speed Twin. Ironic or what?
Eventually, the spirit died away, with Greasers coming on the scene by the end of Sixties. Rockers and Mods got married, jobs, families, a dog... leaving the Brighton and other seaside town battles well behind.
Actually, we are living a revival of the scene, with major manufacturers taking a keen interest in this type of bike with Triumph Bonneville/Thruxton, Ducati GT/Paul Smart, Moto Guzzi, Voxan, Benelli and even Royal Enfield not discounting the Japanese offerings although more in line Street Fighter trend.
Ace Cafe has re opened by Mark Willsmore and has thriving presence in all things motoring, becoming rapidly the mecca for PetrolHeads.
Nowadays, we still fallow the same process with all major British makes as a base for a Cafe Racer and there's a huge range of companies dedicated to the Cafe Racer movement but it is not exactly cheap to have something stylish and reliable unless you use some ingenuity and do most of the work by yourself!
Motorcycles were still common daily transport, even for families, with a side car outfit then later the Microcars. More young people started to have the means to afford personal transportation, being an older bike or a younger scooter or perhaps a very old Austin Seven, good thing Mots' hadn't come into force yet!
From this time, we started to see young bikers congregating together at greasy, lay-by Cafes that populated our roadsides and a movement was born, bikes and Rock & Roll!
But old bikes was often what theses chaps and ladettes could afford, with new bikes still mostly out of reach so, how do we get an old bike to go faster? Exactly, remove all that is unnecessary, begin with the fat pillion!
In those days, any vehicle that could do 100mph was extraordinary, remember, the Jaguar XK120 born in 1948 was so called because it could attain 120mph, making it the fastest production automobile in the world! Later in Jabekke, it managed well over 140mph with a blueprinted engine and some aerodynamic mods such as bubble canopy.
Vincent Black Shadow was then the fastest production bike, with potential for over 125 mph (200Km/h) and could do 0-60mph in less than 6.5 secs! But its price when new was proportionate with its qualities - high!
So, the real challenge for these lads was to get their home brewed bikes to over 100mph (160km/h) with some more or less successful home tuned engines, sometimes resulting in some spectacular blow-up doing the ton-up!
Some Cafes became notorious and quite famous in their own right, with Ace Cafe in North West London by the North Circular, revived few years ago by Mark Willsmore hands, the Busy Bee in Watford Junction sadly no longer with us but revived now through a club and Johnson’s Cafe on A20 in West Kingsdon, East London, not far from Brands Hatch, where the lads got sometimes over excited and did some road racing on A20 on the way to the races!
One of my favourite stories is the one about putting a coin on the Ace's Jukebox and go for an impromptu road race on North Circular on a pre-set route, normally to Hanger Lane Junction (about 1 mile and a bit away) before it became the Gyratory System uniting A40, A406 and A4005 and see who would get back before the song ended!
No mean feat as usually these rock n' roll songs played for less than 3 minutes!
Thanks to these places, we had the Rockers with their Cafe Racers and the Mods with their Italian suits and Lambrettas with about a zillion mirrors!
In history was recorded their famous seaside battles such as Brighton and Hastings, but in their own words, it was just the media making a fuss out of it!
Quadrophenia movie was shot in 1979 (with Sting no less) portraying these British youth sub-cultures. You will notice the ever-present Rockers black leather jackets, goggles and pudding helmets! Just like Ogri!
If you enjoy movies, don’t miss the experimental Tunnel of Love, with guest appearance with Eddie Kid, a truly great short movie. Last time I saw it for sale was at Ace’s.
In the old days, a common way to build a Cafe Racer was to use a Norton featherbed frame, discarded by Formula Junior builders such as Cooper, as Norton would not supply its Manx 500 engine by itself and shove a Triumph engine to it.
Triton was born and with it came alloy tanks, alloy mudguards, rear sets, clip ons, racy seats, all in attempt to emulate the era's racing bikes. Other configurations were attempted including, Tribsa, Norvin, Norbsa and all kinds of "Bitsas". Some builders got famous such as Dresda, Rickman, Metisse, Norvil, Dunstall, Rob North etc, with their tailored kits and accessories.
Remember, at this time there were not speed limits on Motorways, that came later, courtesy of some Ford chaps, Jack Sears and Peter Bolton testing a Daytona Cobra on the M1 at over 185mph and some journalist with nothing better to write about on the Sunday Times newspaper. After all the fuss, 70mph limit was imposed in Britain, by Barbara Castle, Minister of Transport, in 1967. The 70mph is still with us today.
Nevertheless, the Metropolitan police thought that a ton up on North Circular was a no-no, therefore they acquired a secret weapon, oh yes! A fleet of gleaming, very fast Daimler Darts, with special training given to police drivers at Hendon.
These cars were equipped with a 2.5l OHC, all alloy V8 with hemi heads, capable of 125 mph, developed by Edward Turner, yes the same from Triumph fame, responsible for the Speed Twin. Ironic or what?
Eventually, the spirit died away, with Greasers coming on the scene by the end of Sixties. Rockers and Mods got married, jobs, families, a dog... leaving the Brighton and other seaside town battles well behind.
Actually, we are living a revival of the scene, with major manufacturers taking a keen interest in this type of bike with Triumph Bonneville/Thruxton, Ducati GT/Paul Smart, Moto Guzzi, Voxan, Benelli and even Royal Enfield not discounting the Japanese offerings although more in line Street Fighter trend.
Ace Cafe has re opened by Mark Willsmore and has thriving presence in all things motoring, becoming rapidly the mecca for PetrolHeads.
Nowadays, we still fallow the same process with all major British makes as a base for a Cafe Racer and there's a huge range of companies dedicated to the Cafe Racer movement but it is not exactly cheap to have something stylish and reliable unless you use some ingenuity and do most of the work by yourself!
